Lois de Vries' Garden Views

 “The hurricane devastated our wooded lot; we’re still in clean-up mode. I was determined to create something that would symbolize the positive energy of new life that can grow up out of death and destruction – the hope of birds nesting and laying their eggs in a house made from the wreckage of Hurricane Sandy.”                      .....Dan Freed, Wood Artist I know this may sound trivial compared to what has happened to folks at the shore, but most of our trees are more than 60-feet tall. Hurricane Sandy seemed to hover over us for hours and the sounds of the trees creaking, crackling, and collapsing was horrible. Anything more than a light breeze still puts me on high alert. Best in Show The Undergardener has put his demons behind him, though. A wood artist, he exacted the ultimate revenge by using pieces of those shattered trees to create a work of art that...

The Duke Farms eagles, that is. By 7:17 this morning when the screenshot was taken, one chick had hatched and another was pipping. The third chick is not due until Sunday but, since the first two were late in arriving, it's likely the third one will be, as well. You can watch live at: http://www.dukefarms.org/en/Stewardship/WildlifeCams/eagle-cam/   The eagles' tree was downed by Hurricane Sandy in 2012. They built a new nest in a nearby tree and researchers were able to locate the camera so that it has a perfect view of the nest. Enjoy!

A bird feeder that is really squirrel-proof is something you have to see to believe, especially if you've been disappointed by baffles and other squirrel-proofing ideas that just don't work. And that's exactly what happened to us. We spend every Thanksgiving with my life-long friend who lives in Virginia. The prior year she had received a Duncraft squirrel-proof bird feeder as a Christmas gift, and we watched in amazement as scores of birds flocked to it to feed undisturbed by squirrels. That same Christmas, in 2009, we got our own Duncraft Squirrel Proof Selective feeder, so we're entering our second winter with it and I can't say enough positive things about it. When we first put it out, the squirrels were all over it, sitting on the top, swinging from the wire cage, jumping onto it sideways from nearby tree branches, etc. We have some pretty determined squirrels here and they were used to getting what they wanted. But eventually, they gave up. On any given d...

How do you know what your gardener wants most? Listen for clues by paying close attention to the gardener's running commentary throughout the year. Among the mumbling and grumbling, you'll hear things such as, "If I just had one more (fill in the blank), it would look perfect," or "One of these days, I'm going to have to get a (fill in the blank)" or the far more subtle, "I really liked how that (fill in the blank) looked in the neighbor's garden. Rather than giving the same old garden gloves or trowel set, this year offer something more imaginative. Here are my top 10 recommendations for the best holiday gifts for gardeners. 1. Ratchet tools. Among the new tools I've pounced upon are ratcheted loppers with telescoping handles that extend at the push of a button, and ratchet pruners. Both forestall that wrist and thumb pain that becomes so common as we age. Gardeners who suffer from arthritis will find they can last longer, with less pai...

As the daffodil leaves push up and buds start puffing out on trees and shrubs, ground hogs and chipmunks are waking from their winter sleep and making sporadic appearances. In two more months, our perennial herd of deer will be birthing fawns, cottontails will multiply, and the flying squirrels will have moved out of our shed and into the telephone cable connector cover. The latter will be unceremoniously dumped out in what has become an annual ritual, when my phone service dies completely. Last year, three Red Tail Hawk chicks sat in their tree-top nest a mile away for what seemed like months; then spent every summer day soaring above our house, calling out incessantly to one another, enraptured by the joy of flight. A Northern Harrier has moved in and favors a roosting tree opposite my home office window. Sometimes he’s hunting, sometimes just snoozing. Over the winter I heard, for the first time, one of my neighbor’s many foxes “bark,” as it hunted in our wetland. After all these ye...

(Photo courtesy of Chandler S. Robbins) My new favorite bird book is Sally Roth’s Bird-by-Bird Gardening, which I stumbled across at the bookstore yesterday. I say stumbled because, although it was faced out on the shelf, it was a bottom shelf and, being the only copy, was pushed to the rear and hidden by its neighbors. Lucky for Sally that I am one of those persistent book buyers who crawls around on her hands and knees to make sure she hasn’t missed anything important. This book deserves a featured position. It groups birds by families, such as all thrushes together, and all woodpeckers together, etc. While it primarily covers backyard songbirds (not ducks, or hawks, or owls), each chapter details the range and habits of that bird family, habitat, what they look for in a compatible back yard, their natural foods, nesting habits, and what they like at feeding stations. There is a basic garden plan for each chapter, a chart of "surefire plants" to attract that family of bird...

The other night we heard the busy twittering of house wrens in the front yard; not unusual given that a pair had raised two clutches of chicks in the bluebird house, and that three other pairs had each fledged their own broods three different times this summer. What caught my attention though, was a wren attempting to perch on the window muntins of the front door, as our (indoor) cat lashed her tail to and fro in anticipation of some very exciting action. Our front porch offers a smorgasbord of insects even with the light turned off, but I thought it was rather late for the birds’ evening meal, it being nearly dark. As we spied on the pair through our window, they hopped around the posts and beams, sat for a few moments in the shelter of my summering house fern, perched atop the bonsai, and darted between the porch and nearby cedar trees. They first tried the chair and then the deacon’s bench, in between making forays back onto the beams. All the while, they chattered to one another...